Harvard University is fighting accusations that its admissions office racially discriminated against Asian-American students in a high-stakes affirmative action case in federal court on Monday.

The Ivy League school is going head-to-head against Students for Fair Admission (SFFA), an organization founded by an anti-affirmative action activist who sued Harvard in 2014, in a closely watched case that could influence the use of race as a factor in college admissions decisions. Opening statements began Monday in the non-jury trial before U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston

“What’s at stake is the poisonous tribalism that colleges have been spreading into the world at-large that is tearing this world apart,” political commentator Heather Mac Donald told “Fox & Friends” Monday morning. “Harvard, like every other college, requires Asians to meet a much higher standard of academic qualifications to get in and admits blacks and Hispanic students with much lower qualifications on the assumption that somehow race is the most important thing about you.”

SFFA, headed by Edward Blum, claims Harvard illegally engages in “racial balancing,” artificially limiting the number of Asian-American students, according to court papers.

Blum contends, despite having the best academic records, Asian-American applicants suffer the lowest admission rate among any race, as well as unfairly receiving the lowest score of any group on a subjective “personal” rating assigned by Harvard admissions officials.

Comments

Harvard has always had racial quotas, more often called “goals.” When I was there in the early ’70s, they had a maximum on Jews of 40%, as well as regional quotas. A kid named Cohen from Brooklyn had to meet much higher standards than a black (or Gentile, for that matter) kid from Montana.